The latter has caffeine, the essential ingredient for civilization — like at Cahokia.

Moreover, making both cocoa and ‘black drink’ required plants that
grew in far-off climates, researchers say, indicating that the Southwest
was part of an ancient ‘caffeine trade network’ that extended from the
foothills of the Rockies to the heart of Mexico.

“There are no known plants in the Southwest or Northwestern Mexico that have caffeine,” said Dr. Patricia Crown, an anthropologist at the University of New Mexico who led the study.

Some stands of aspen and cottonwood trees across northern Colorado
and along the Front Range won’t be their most picturesque this fall, due
to leaf spot diseases that benefited from an unusually wet spring and
early summer, state foresters say.

Foresters say they’ve seen an unusually high degree of leaf blight in
the mountains and along the Front Range – as far south as Aspen, the
Collegiate Peaks and Colorado Springs – for about a month.

At least two fungal diseases are to blame for the leaves now showing significant spotting or dark splotches. Marssonina leaf spot
is caused by the Marssonina fungus and is the most common leaf disease
of aspen and cottonwoods in Colorado. The disease can be identified by
the presence of dark brown spots or flecks on leaves, which can then
fuse into large, black splotches on severely infected leaves.

I have been seeing a browning of Gambel oak leaves in some clone-stands all summer, and since it could not have been from pesticide (not on our land), what was causing it?

Apparently the fungus affecting oaks is different, Discula quercina(and maybe others), but the look is the same: "Leaves have scattered brown, irregular spots that can coalesce into nearly completely brown leaves." And the extremely wet spring is to blame.

Is the difference between southern and northern Colorado just the lack of Gambel oak (scrub oak), which peters out pretty quickly north of Castle Rock, roughly speaking?

Oak brush provides cover and nesting habitat for many forms of wildlife
(birds, mammals, amphibians, etc.). The foliage and acorns offer
valuable food for many of these wildlife species, such as wild turkey,
mule deer, and black bear. Acorns produced by the larger stands of oak
brush are critical for turkey.

It's also difficult
to chart the number of dead bears. While Parks and Wildlife relocates or
euthanizes scores of problem bears, the state hasn't been able to keep
up a database with that information since about 2011, said Jerry Apker,
the statewide carnivore manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Countless bears are killed and not recorded by local animal-control
officers, law enforcement, poachers or motorists.

"[Early wolf-dogs are] large, have big teeth and all those predatory, dog/wolf
characteristics. You have to assume from the anatomy that they could
track very well from the scent of an animal. They were built to be fast
running, as wolves and most dogs are. Humans don't run terribly fast. We
have a crappy sense of smell. We do cooperate with each other, which is
helpful, and we had long-distance weapons, like spears and bows and
arrows.

"Neanderthals seem to have specialized in stabbing an animal at close
quarters with handheld weapons and wrestling it down. We had weapons we
could launch from a distance, which is a very big advantage. There's a
lot less risk of personal injury."